Damien Hirst an English artist and member of the Young British Artists is most well known for his work featuring a series of dead animals preserved in formaldehyde. One in particular titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living displays a 14 foot tiger shark encased in a glass case of formaldehyde. For the installation Hirst commissioned a fisherman to catch a shark of the coast of Australia stating he wanted something "big enough to eat you." Being a psychology major I was intrigued by this installation because although you know that the shark is dead and there is no way that it can in any way harm you I imagine that seeing the exhibition that up close and personal must still give many viewers that jitters. It plays with your mind and reality. You are conditioned to feel fear when you find yourself starring head on into the dark beady eyes of a shark but this shark can not hurt you so you are not really sure what to think. Hirst's exhibitions also include other animals such as a sheep and a cow. However not all other artists find Hirst's work so fascination. The Stuckist art group created in 1999 opened a Stuckism gallery under the name A Dead Shark Isn't Art. They argued that Hirst was the downfall of contemporary art proving that "financial value was now the only meaning that remained for art."
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